October 29th, 2008 by Solange

Sending stylish personalised greeting cards does not have to cost the earth using free internet cards. Making greeting cards is not an expensive hobby, but sending cards for all occasions quickly mounts up, soon you will be looking for tips to keep the cost down.

Personally I love beautiful cards, it is great to be able to use embellishments or little gems but they cost therefore I am always on the look out for bargains  I research and compare their price, bid or buy on line.

Cheaper alternatives don’t have to look tatty, with a little imagination you can create great looking cards worthy of their  expensive counterparts.

Here are some tips to keep the cost down:

l  if you are a students, part of a club, or taking your kids to school, ask to put a notice up. The card making community is extremely large, you will meet card-makers this way, then you can get together to swap material or buy material with a bulk discount.

l  Soon you will have collected quiet a lot of material, making it easy to forget what material you already have, moreover some of the bits are often extremely small and tend to “disappear”. Make sure that you keep track of your collection. Tidy is the word that comes to mind.

l  I buy my base-cards on sheets rather than pre-cuts one, the card is easy to cut offering you more flexibility, you can have different shapes too as well as various sizes and it is less expensive

l  I am always on the look out for freebies scattered across the internet and free downloads.

l  Giving is receiving:  the more you send cards the more you will receive, which will allow you to recycle the design, using decoupage technique.

l  Some techniques use surprising recycled material: aluminium shapes made out of cans: cut a can open and use the aluminium inside. Recycle CD cases instead of envelops : glue your design inside the box.

l  Cards which are not overly “busy” often have a stronger impact, few carefully chosen materials goes a long way

l  Recycle whenever you can, my friends always laugh when after a party I rummage through ribbons and wrapping papers. With a little mischief my booty will be included in their next card.

If you want to have fun as well as cutting the cost, making paper is great fun however it is much more involved and you will possibly will have to spend some time teaching yourself before you can get a nice sheet.